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E-mail of the Day

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We get good news from students quite often, but this e-mail today reminded us of how great it is to do what we do here at Manhattan GMAT. Kudos to Jonathan Schneider, Kate McKeon, and Horacio Quiroga for their tremendous work in contributing to yet another success story!

Hi all.

It’s with a lot of emotion that I write this email to you all -because each of you were instrumental in me achieving a fair GMAT score. Kate your teaching was always on point, so much so that I watched the replays of class long after class was over. Jonathan your teaching style in addition to your extra help throughout class is greatly appreciated, and I’m in gratitude to your constant interaction with me up to the hours before my exam. Horacio you were always so willing to help out in any way you could, including occasionally going beyond our scheduled time, and sending me much needed review documents.

As Jonathan said a few weeks ago, my goal is to “fire on all cannons.”

With that said:

Quantitative: 43

Verbal: 44

Score: 710 (92nd percentile)

Bear in mind my absolute highest combination of scores seen in the last five CATs were Q42 and V37. My first official GMAT taken in February was a 590. My goal on Saturday was a 650, yet I was hoping to break 630 on that day. With your help guys, I’ve blown away even the wackiest of expectations, with a 120 point increase and a 710 score.

Thanks to Manhattan GMAT, I now have crossed the academic bridge to getting into business school, and can at the minimum be taken seriously by any school in the country. I’m quite emotional about the whole thing – and want you all to know that you and your team were instrumental in me achieving my goals.

Sincerely – thank you. The direction of the rest of my life is now a bit different thanks to your support and teaching. Feel free to use me as a reference at any point. And feel free to forward this email to any of your supervisors, bosses, direct reports, proteges, references, or whomever. Thanks again.

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Naveed A. Khan

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mbaMission events in NY, Chicago, Silicon Valley

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As application season just starts to get underway, Manhattan GMAT is proud to host mbaMission events in its New York, Chicago, and Silicon Valley centers this Thursday, May 14th.

This is your chance to talk to an expert and get your application off on the right foot. Admissions consultants from mbaMission (each with an MBA from Harvard or Chicago) will be answering such questions as:

* “What do B-Schools want to see from me?”
* “What can I do to improve my chances of getting in?”
* “What sort of GMAT score should I be aiming for?”

Each session will also include a Q & A to make sure you get your questions answered.

Click on your city for event details in NY, Chicago, or Silicon Valley. Space is limited.

If you’re not located in one of those cities, you should feel free to visit mbaMission’s website for a free consultation. They’re very helpful over there!

Introducing . . . Atlas LSAT

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We here at Manhattan GMAT have done our utmost over the past 9 years to offer the best curriculum and the best Instructors in the test prep industry. We like to think that our growth and success indicate that we’ve succeeded in some measure.

Now, we are proud to introduce to the world our sister company, Atlas LSAT! Atlas LSAT will be driven by the same principles that have guided Manhattan GMAT:

Real Teachers. Instructors selected for teaching ability as well as test-taking expertise, with 99th percentile scores (172+) and paid the highest rates in the industry ($100/hour);
High-end Curriculum. A curriculum dedicated to teaching people the skills required to get the highest scores to get into top 10 programs;
Student-Centered. A belief that good teaching means building from the students up. No auditorium-sized classes.

We’re very confident that LSAT students will benefit from and gravitate toward an organization that reflects these principles.

A reasonable person might ask, Why not ManhattanLSAT? First, we believe that one of the reasons Manhattan GMAT has been successful is that we have remained laser-focused on just one thing: the GMAT. It was important to us to retain that focus. Thus, Atlas LSAT has its own staff and operations, and will establish its own identity. They might even have a bit more fun than we do. 🙂

Also, Atlas LSAT just sounds better.

Here’s to Atlas LSAT doing for LSAT students what Manhattan GMAT has done for GMAT students! (Note: Average GMAT scores have risen 15 points in the past 3 years, around the same time MGMAT has expanded worldwide. Maybe there’s some relationship there . . . )

MGMAT in the press

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Manhattan GMAT was recently profiled on SmarterMoney.com, part of the Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal network. Always good to get some recognition!

Andrew Yang, MGMAT CEO, on CNBC

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CNBC had Andrew Yang, CEO of Manhattan GMAT, as a guest last week to comment on the current outlook for young college graduates looking to enter the workforce.

12th Edition of the Official Guide for GMAT Review

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GMAC has publicly released the long awaited 12th Edition of the Official Guide for GMAT Review! The beloved big orange 11th Edition is being replaced by the same-size maroon 12th Edition.

Here at Manhattan GMAT, we heartily recommend all GMAC materials for students. Indeed, students receive all of the Official Guides when they sign up for any course. So the relevant question for most students is really, “If I already own the 11th Edition, should I run out (or go online) and get a new copy of the 12th Edition?”

And the answer is a decided “Yes, with reservations.”

First of all, if you own the 11th Edition, you already own 67% of the 12th Edition. Of the 907 problems, 607 are repeated from the 11th Edition. Indeed, the entire Diagnostic Text is identical. So you’re looking at 300 new problems.

Second, it is not the case that these 300 new problems break any substantial new ground in terms of question formats or tested material. They don’t. Often, they actually are substituted in place of VERY similar problems in the 11th edition that tested the exact same concepts.

Third, you might even have seen some of these 300 problems before, as some of them were already public via GMAC’s GMAT Focus tests.

All of that said, we always advocate that there’s nothing like the real thing. So if you don’t own the 11th edition, we’d say without hesitation that you should order the 12th edition ASAP (Note: All GMAC materials can be applied for book credit for any MGMAT course). The 12th edition does have a body of new data sufficiency questions (as DS questions are included in a higher proportion than was the case in the 11th). And even if you do own the 11th edition, 300 real GMAT problems for $36.95 (or less) is a pretty outstanding value.

For those of you of a statistical bent, we have posted a VERY thorough analysis of the differences between the 11th and 12th Editions here, right down to the granular problem level. We are very particular about our GMAT prep materials here at MGMAT. 🙂

Manhattan GMAT Flash Cards now available

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Here at Manhattan GMAT, we’ve had a long and involved history with flash cards, or at least the idea of them.

On one hand, many students seemed to enjoy and benefit from practicing with flash cards. Indeed several of our Instructors have recommended using flash cards to their tutoring students for years.

However, the same Instructors recommended that the student construct his/her own flash cards, in order to facilitate both learning and prioritization. There was a concern that providing our own flash cards might channel students down the wrong paths, toward memorization as opposed to learning problem-solving techniques. Also, students would naturally think that whatever was on the flash cards was what they should know – we feared that providing flash cards might even wind up wasting students’ time on topics that weren’t useful for the individual.

So we decided to be both more and less ambitious with our brand new GMAT Flash Cards, which are now available for free. These Flash Cards are intended to give each student a tool to keep his/her GMAT ‘muscles’ sharp. They also can be very useful to give a student at the beginning of his or her studies a broad sense of some of the topics that the GMAT will test. Last, we did our best to make the Flash Cards less about rote memorization, and more about thinking and applying certain principles. The problems are generally not calculation-intensive; our goal was to make each card pass “the Subway Test” – a student should be able to complete the Flash Card while just looking at the card on the subway, without pen and paper.

The MGMAT Flash Cards are NOT exhaustive in terms of topics. Indeed, there aren’t even any Flash Cards for Critical Reasoning or Reading Comprehension, as those content areas don’t readily lend themselves to the format. Please do regard the MGMAT Flash Cards as a potentially useful supplementary or introductory tool, but not as a replacement for real studying! And if you find them helpful, you should seriously consider making your own flash cards consisting of problems you didn’t get right the 1st time or concepts you struggle with. It may be labor-intensive, but that’s the kind of individual work that’s virtually guaranteed to pay off.

Happy studying!

What NOT to do when studying for the GMAT

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Top Five GMAT Study Mistakes
by Carrie Shuchart, Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Having observed thousands of GMAT test-takers over the years, we at ManhattanGMAT have identified five common study mistakes that students make while studying for the GMAT.

Mistake #1: Believing that more is more

A common misperception is that the only way to truly master the GMAT is to see every problem in existence. And given the number of GMAT guides available at your local bookstore, there is plenty of material out there. Of course, you do want to see a variety of problems, so that you know which concepts are tested, and how. However, simply exposing yourself to all sorts of problems is not enough; you have to actually study the problems, and this may mean doing fewer problems. You are not done with a problem when you get it right. You should spend twice as long reviewing a problem as you spend doing it, whether or not you got it correct. (I’m serious on that one.) As a part of your review, ask yourself whether you identified the topics being tested. Did you do answer the question in the most efficient way? Was there another approach you could have taken? Does the problem or any of the concepts remind you of other problems you’ve seen? The goal is to find a lesson in each question and be able to apply those lessons to the next group of problems you do.

Read more

Carrol Chang is moving to D.C.!

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Carrol Chang, one of our most beloved New York Instructors, is moving to Washington D.C.! After interning at the Obama campaign, Carrol decided to become one of the awesome people joining the government to help the country get things done right!

New York’s loss is D.C.’s gain. Now, Carrol’s going to be teaching classes in our nation’s capital, starting next Wednesday! As you can see, Carrol doesn’t waste any time.

Have fun down there Carrol! 🙂

When do I take the GMAT?

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Many people who are considering applying to Business School in the future want to know when they should take the GMAT.

The first thing to know is that your GMAT Score is good for 5 years.  This means that you should feel free to prepare for the GMAT and take it when you have some time, NOT right before you’re gearing up to apply.  Indeed, many people would be very well-served taking the test during their senior year in college, as they’re still in an academic, test-taking mode at this point (and still vaguely remember, say, the formula for the area of a trapezoid).

At this point, you’re likely reading this blog posting thinking “Great, where were you 4 years ago when I was still in college?”  Don’t worry about it, as the average GMAT test-taker is in his or her mid-to-late 20s (70% from 22 -30).

The general principle is that you are best served taking the test when you have the bandwidth to fit it into your schedule.  Ideally, you’ll have your GMAT Score established before you gear up to complete your applications.  Indeed, your score may even change which MBA programs you apply to (for better or worse).  When app deadlines roll around, you’ll want to be worrying about honing your essays and arranging school visits – the last thing you want to have in mind at that point is getting a higher GMAT Score.

Another reason to take the GMAT early is that, if you’re determined to get a certain goal score, you’ll have a much better chance of doing so if you give yourself a runway.  The correlation between time spent studying and one’s score is consistently positive – the average person spends 2 – 3 months preparing for the GMAT.  Indeed, the average score increase for someone who takes the test a 2nd time is 31 points (according to data from GMAC).  As you can only take the GMAT once per month, you’d like to give yourself time for multiple tries if necessary before any deadline creeps up.

Now you may be thinking, “Wait a minute, I can take this test more than once?”  That’s right, Business Schools take your best score, not your average score.  So there’s really not much of a disincentive to take the GMAT multiple times, aside from your time (and the $250 per sitting it will cost you).  This has its limits though – Harvard Business School, for example, told us that by the 5th try, they tend to discount your score a little bit.  So try and get your best score possible within your 1st four tries or so.

Bottom line – wait until you have some time on your hands, but generally the sooner you prepare and get your test score out of the way, the better off you’ll be (unless you’re not going to apply within the next 5 years, and then you really have better things to be reading than this blog!).